Since time immemorial, man has sought to design and build the optimum flying machine. Reduction of moving parts is part of such optimization. During the Middle Ages, various inventors designed apparatus which they felt would achieve the objective of enabling man to fly. It has, however, only been within the last 100 years that significant progress has been made toward developing viable aircraft.
Basically, flying craft can be divided into one of two types: lighter-than-air devices and heavier-than-air devices. Developments came earlier with regard to the former type of craft. Such a vehicle is provided with a bladder or balloon which can be filled with a gas having a specific gravity less than that of air. This type of craft is an application of Archimedes' principle which states that a body immersed in a fluid is bouyed up by a force equal to the weight of the liquid it displaces. If the weight of the fluid displaced is greater than the weight of the body, the body will "float" on the fluid. Zeppelins and hot air balloon recreational craft are illustrative of this type of vehicle.
Heavier-than-air craft, on the other hand, function because of either Newton's third law of motion or Bernoulli's principle, or both. Newton's third law of motion states that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. A helicopter is a heavier-than-air craft illustrating the application of this law. As the main rotor of a helicopter rotates, the pitch of the blades will cause the exertion of a force upon the air through which the rotor cuts. As a consequence, an equal and opposite force will be exerted upon the rotor blades as they rotate. This force will, in view of the pitch of the rotor blades and the direction in which the rotor rotates, urge the helicopter upwardly.
A conventional fixed wing aircraft illustrates the application of Bernoulli's principle in combination with Newton's third law of motion. The principle states that, as a fluid is caused to be moved over a surface, the pressure upon the surface will be reduced below ambient pressure. In the case of the fixed wing aircraft, the curvature of the upper surface of an airfoil, or wing, is such that the distance which air that is attacked by a forward edge of the airfoil travels in passing above the foil is greater than that travelled by air passing below the foil. In order to meet and merge properly with air at the rear edge of the foil, therefore, the air passing above the airfoil will travel at a greater velocity than that passing beneath. Consequently, the pressure exerted upon the upper surface will be less than that exerted upon the lower surface of the foil. This differential in pressures creates the lift necessary to cause the airplane to fly.
Heretofore, helicopters have had distinct advantages over craft which rely upon Bernoulli's principle for take off and flight. Because of the principles upon which they rely for operation, they are able to both take off and land vertically. Consequently, they can operate from launching sites of a relatively small size.
Both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, however, have certain limitations which decrease efficiency, convenience, and safety of operation of the craft. Illustrative of these limitations is the large number of moving parts involved with both types of these craft. Most importantly, such a limitation can allow for the possibility of the occurrence of accidents because of failure of one or more the parts. Even when adequate maintenance is conducted in order to minimize the chances of accident occurrence, significant man hours must be expended in conducting the maintenance, and component replacement can be very expensive.
Typically, aircraft of the type previously discussed utilize "air breathing" engines. Consequently, the efficiency of their operation tends to diminish as the altitudes at which the craft are operated are increased. This is due to the rarified air conditions at these increased altitudes.
The propulsion means employed by these types of craft have other disadvantages. In addition to being less efficient in operation at greater altitudes, they tend to be ecologically polluting. Fuels which engines powering conventional aircraft burn vent noxious pollutants into the atmosphere.
It is to these deficiencies in the prior art that the invention of the present application is directed. It provides a heavier-than-air craft which overcomes these problems to provide a desirable alternative to the various types of conventional aircraft presently used.